I eventually gave up on Mega Man X: Command Mission. I remember now why I lost interest in it the first time. It wasn't a side quest that was too tedious, but rather the
main quest. The story takes a turn to deal with something called "Supra-Force Metal," which comes off as a very poorly handled cliche. I stopped this time when the super smart scientist forced me to run through a dungeon getting pictures so he can tell me what I "mysterious" object is, but I was able to tell it was a missile from the
first picture. That whole dungeon was just pointless padding to extend the game and force me to listen to terrible dialogue.
So after dropping that, I moved on to my PlayStation 2 backlog. I finished up Wild ARMs: Alter Code F. The dialogue and story in that game feels really dated to me now. It's not a completely horrible turn like Command Mission, but some of it was grating. I suppose that's since it was a remake of a PlayStation 1 title without many updates in that area. I had played this game up to the last dungeon previously, so I just wrapped that up so I could import the save into Wild ARMs 4.
So, then I played and finished Wild ARMs 4. It was good. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the change from a standard turn based battle system to the hex grid, but I was really comfortable with the hexes by the end of the game. The characters were good overall, also. Some moments were tedious, or even childish when the characters start ranting against the concept of adults, but it all pulled through for a good game. The ending was bittersweet, but fairly fitting for the story.
Within a couple of hours of finishing Wild ARMs 4, I started Wild ARMs 5. If you can't tell, I'm on a Wild ARMs kick now.
#5 is quite a change from #4. #4 was all about introducing new gameplay elements that homaged previous titles while being quite different. In contrast, #5 takes elements from all four other games and blends these into an even better system.
It has the hex grid again, but gives you fewer characters to use in battle. This increases the challenge of combat somewhat; not always in a good way, but it makes things more interesting at times. There are a lot of cameos of characters from the first four games, which is fun to see. I don't recognize all of them, since I skipped #2, but still fun. I took a break from this game about 15 or 20 hours in, to focus on work. I hope to pick it back up during the next week. Hopefully I'll find a vehicle in the game soon, because running back and forth between two towns was getting tiresome.